I'm going to keep that running
because it's pretty hot out. Yeah, that's fine. That's good, yeah. All right, brethren, let's get
started. We're going to be in Romans 11. Romans chapter 11, and I want
to look at verses 17 through 24 with you all. Romans 11, 17
through 24. Now, these verses here serve as a warning. against interpreting the gospel's
flow, the gospel coming to the Gentiles in a manner that should
cause us to be puffed up with pride, to feel some sense of
entitlement or something that we've done or because of us that
this gospel has now come to us. And so, we ought not to be arrogant
about this, but rather humble, that God should be so kind and
gracious to us. And so, the Gentile believers
here, Paul is speaking to them of these things, lest they should
be lest they should exalt themselves over the Jews, lest they should
think of themselves more highly than they ought to think of themselves. And so we're not to exalt ourselves
over the Jews, and especially not Jewish believers, all right? And so if any is puffed up when
hearing that salvation has departed from the Jews, that it may come
to the Gentiles, they ought to consider whether or not they
really know the gospel, right? If you're feeling pride about
this, well, do you really know the grace of God? Have you experienced
the grace of God that he should be so kind in bringing the light
of the gospel to you? And so, it's not that we as Gentiles
now are suddenly more special than those which were called
Jews according to the flesh, because salvation is by the grace
of God alone, apart from our works, or apart from us making
ourselves special or acceptable to the Lord. You know, many Jews stumbled
over this very thing, right? They looked to their lineage
from Abraham and thought that ensured their salvation. They thought that made them special
in the eyes of God. But the Lord said, you know,
and Paul brought this out so we didn't miss it, that in Isaac
shall thy seed be blessed. Abraham had many children. We
often even forget about Keturah, right? And all the sons she bore
to Abraham late in his life, but from Ishmael and Keturah. And the Lord said, in Isaac shall
thy seed be blessed. Not that lineage, but in other
words, the children of the promise that we should always know that
it's according to God's promise in the covenant of grace that
he saves. which is revealed or evidenced
by the faith that he bears, that fruit of faith that he bears
by the Spirit in his children. All right? So the Jews, they
thought that they were special and peculiar based on their lineage,
and yet how many thousands and millions of them died in unbelief
outside of the Kingdom of God outside of the inheritance of
the riches of God in Christ Jesus. So we're not to be puffed up
in vanity or to boast of these things that well now I'm a Gentile
and only they receive the grace of God and the Jews are completely
cut off forever. No, God is able to save them
by grace just as he saves us. And that's the only way that
God saves, is by grace. It's not based on lineage, either
as a Jew or not being a Jew. It's always and only in Christ. in grace. So I've titled this
message, Broken Branches. Broken Branches. And the first
thing we're going to look at is this root and fatness that's
spoken of in our text. Now before we get there, before
we look at verse 17, let me just say a few other words leading
up to it. Paul's been confirming to us
here in this chapter, as well as this whole letter, that salvation
has always been according to the election of grace. And we've
been looking at this, and I'm highlighting these verses, on
purpose to us, right? Romans 11, 2 says, God hath not
cast away his people, which he foreknew, right? Those whom God
loves, he hasn't cast them away, he loves them eternally. They're
still His people. So then, verse 5, at this present
time also, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. There's always a remnant that
God has that He separates out according to the election of
grace. And He tells us in verse 7, the
election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. And so
this is true of Jew and Gentile. It's true of both Jew and Gentile,
all right? Now, Paul wants to ensure that
the Gentile brethren aren't gonna stumble over the same stumbling
stone that the Jews stumbled over, right? And thinking somehow
that now they're the chosen people because they're Gentiles, right?
That's foolishness. It's always according to the
election of grace and never outside of the election of grace. I'm
going to read a couple verses from Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16, and here Solomon
says in verse 18, that pride goeth before destruction, and
in haughty spirit before the fall. So we're not to be proud
and puffed up. That is the beginning of our
going down. That's the beginning of us stumbling
and falling. these other verses are also appropriate
to what we're looking at here. He goes on to say in Proverbs
16 verse 19, better it is to be of an humble spirit with the
lowly than to divide the spoil with the crowd. The spoil being
our hope in Christ. That's not to be divided among
the proud and the arrogant, but it's given in grace to the lowly,
to those made humble by the grace of God. So he says then in verse
20, he that handleth the matter wisely, that is you that have
an understanding and a standing in the grace of God, you shall
find good, he says. And whoso trusteth in the Lord,
not his race, not in who he is according to the flesh, but trusts
in the Lord, happy is he." All right, so that's what the Lord
is saying to us. Don't look at anything in the flesh. We have
no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence remains fixed
in the Lord Jesus Christ in all things. All right, so now Paul
having declared to us throughout the epistle, in all his epistles,
but even in this epistle here, that it's always and only a matter
of grace in Christ, he says to his Gentile hearers, in verse
17 now, back in our text, Romans 11, 17, and if some of the branches
be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted
in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness
of the olive tree." All right? The root, we understand, is Jesus
Christ. He's the one who bears his people,
and it's not the other way around. We're not bearing Christ. Christ
bears us. It's not as man-made religion
teaches, right? They teach that We're validating
Christ by our faith, right? The man thinks that he's upholding
Christ and the honor of God by his believing God. And the reality
is, no, we don't make God valid, or we don't justify God by our
actions. And apart from us, there's nothing.
But rather, God justifies his people. And he reveals himself
in them through faith. It's all his work. We're held
by the grace of God and not the other way around. And then this
fatness of the olive tree here, that's that believing part of
Israel. That's the church, the true church
of the living God, who are always looking for the coming of Christ.
The church in the Old Testament was looking unto the coming of
Christ. who would reveal salvation. Now
we know, we look back and see that he has come and has accomplished
salvation, and we now yet look for his return, right, when he
comes back and raises us all up and gathers us to himself
in the resurrection. All right, so the church has
always served the true and living God, always believing the Christ
of God, always looking to the Messiah, and that began even
in Abraham, right, when God called Abraham out of idolatry, and
his children, Isaac and Jacob, and all those patriarchs, right,
and then into Joshua and Caleb, and through the judges, and into
David, and Solomon, and the faithful kings, and all the believers
that we don't know, but there were many that the Lord saved
and had mercy on in Israel who looked for his coming, right? All the way up to Simeon and
Anna, the widow, right? Who looked, who spoke of Christ
to all those who looked for his coming, it says in Luke there.
That's always been the true Israel. Listen to these verses here.
Most of them will be in Romans, if you want to look with me.
Romans 1, verse 16. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. Now hold your place there in
Romans, and I'm just going to go to John 4.22. and we'll see
what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says to us concerning the Jews.
He's speaking to that Samaritan woman at the well. And he says,
ye worship, ye know not. You don't even know what you
worship and what you're doing in Samaria here, which is also
true of us Gentiles as well, right? And he said, we know what
we worship for. Salvation is of the Jews. See that? So the Lord always
has had a people, and it began there in the Jews. They were
the first ones connected to the root and were the fatness of
the tree there. All right, back in Romans 3,
1 and 2. Paul asks, what advantage then
hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Well, much every way. He says,
chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of
God. And then Romans 9, verse 4 and
5, Romans 9, 4 and 5, he says, Israelites, a few words in, Israelites
to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants
and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises,
whose are the fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh
Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever, Amen. And so, What he's saying here
is that these weren't benefited by us, we Gentiles are benefited
by them. So we're not to exalt ourselves
and say, look at us, how awesome we are. No, we're the ones that
are receiving all these benefits as a result of the Lord's work
in them first. He first worked in them. He first
called them out. the branches that these Gentiles
saw being broken off, they were removed because of unbelief,
because they didn't believe in Christ, right? They weren't just
simply broken off and chucked away just to make room for us. You see where I'm going? Like,
how a person thinking that would be puffed up, thinking, well,
God's just ripping them out, making room for us. No, God didn't
have to remove believers. There was unbelievers. And that's
why they were removed. And that's why they were put
aside and cast away because of unbelief. Not just to make room
for you and me. He didn't have to do that. He did it in grace and in mercy. And that's why those that rejected
Christ were removed from that olive tree, the fatness of the
olive tree. So now our God, through his gospel,
has begun revealing faith in these Gentiles, all right? And
he began grafting them into the olive tree by faith. By faith, right? It wasn't because
of anything else that they had done. It was all in faith. And so what I want you to see
is that there's always only been one family of God. There's only
ever been one church, right? One salvation. One Savior. It's not different churches or
different families of God. There's one family of God. Some were removed because of
unbelief, and others were added, having faith revealed to them
by the grace of God, but there's still only one family. I like
what Ephesians, what Paul said in Ephesians 4 through 6, he
said there's one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called
in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all
and in you all." So, this salvation that we're in, it's the same
trait. The branches have changed, but it's the same trait. It's the one family of God and
salvation. All right, therefore he says
to us in verse 18, Romans 11, 18, He says, boast not against the
branches. Don't boast against Jews because
they're Jews. Whether they're believers or
unbelievers, don't boast against them. But if thou boast, or rather
if you insist on boasting, if you continue on in your boasting
thinking you're special and they're not, consider this, he says,
thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Again, You're
not the one upholding God and keeping this thing going for
Him. He's the one keeping it going. He's the life giver. He's
the root. He's the one who's being gracious
to whomsoever He will according to the election of grace. those
whom He foreknew before the foundation of the earth, before any of us
did good or evil. God chose us in grace in His
Son, Jesus Christ, committing us to His salvation, His work. All right. And, you know, really,
we Gentiles heard it from Jewish preachers. ultimately, right? It goes all the way back to Christ,
and it was always Jewish men that the Lord used to preach
the gospel before it went out to the Gentiles, and then the
Gentiles, you know, the Lord gifted some Gentile men to become
preachers, and they continued preaching and declaring the gospel,
all right? So this leads us to another thought
here that the proud Gentile might have, and it's in verse 19 there,
all right? when we're thinking of our place
in the kingdom and the Jews removal from it, Paul addresses this
thought that someone might have in verse 19. Thou wilt say then,
the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. So everything Paul's been declaring
to us in the gospel gives us no grounds to exalt ourselves
over another unbeliever. You don't feel that way with
each other, right? You don't have anything to exalt
yourself over another brother, right? And if that thought comes
in your head, you check it and realize, that's foolish. Why
am I thinking like that? Who am I to exalt myself over
my brother or sister, right? Well, the same thing with the
Jew. We as Gentiles have nothing to exalt ourselves over a Jew
because they're also saved by faith and grace, just like we
ourselves are saved that same way. And We acknowledge that
God teaching us the Gospel, He causes us to acknowledge that
the grace I have isn't of my flesh, right? It's not of me,
it's of the Lord. Ephesians 2.8, For by grace are
ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, if faith is
the gift of God. And it's not given indiscriminately
to all for them to decide whether they're going to exercise it
or not. That's putting something that isn't even there in the
scriptures. It's by faith, that gift of God, whereby a person
believes, and those to whom he gives that faith, they shall
believe in the appointed times of God's grace. And so these
branches weren't just broken off and snapped off randomly
just to insert you or me, right? We were grafted in by grace. And he says, he actually answers
this in verse 20, Romans 11, 20, well, or uses it like true,
because of unbelief, they were broken off, and thou standest
by faith, be not high-minded, but fear. And what we see, the
fact that Paul's even addressing this, it shows us what we are
in the flesh and the pride of nature that is in this very flesh
of ourselves, right? We have this same pride and this
same sin in us. I mean, it was in Adam, and we
were all in Adam's loins when he sinned and rebelled against
God in pride and was lifted up in pride. And so it's in every
one of us. And we see that same pride eking
out of the religion of this world, right? Religious men and women
boasting of and proud for their faith, right? And that's why
so many people say, I believed. It was my faith that saved me. And I know the scriptures speak
of, like that at times when the Lord said, go in peace, thy faith
has saved you. But it's the faith which God
in grace gave to the sinner. as opposed to that other sinner
who knows nothing of grace, and knows nothing of faith in God. They have faith in themselves,
or faith in other things, but they don't have faith in the
Son of God, who is the Christ-Sent of God, to save His people. it's our faith because God gave
it to us and is the power and authority behind that faith and
that gift and that fruit that is bearing in us, right? So we've
nothing to boast of and we don't boast of our lineage whether
we're Jew or Gentile. We don't boast now of our denomination
and exalt ourselves thinking that we're better because we
see how all the churches that call themselves Christian have
fallen into numerous sins and folly and have gone off into
the same dead-letter religion that the Jews were guilty of.
And so we don't hang our hoax on a denomination. our hope is
fixed in Christ, that He deliver us from stumbling over religion,
just like the Jews did. They stumbled over Christ, and
we don't want to stumble over Christ and forget Him, and think
that it's now in what we do or don't do that saves us, because
it's Christ. It's always only Christ. And so we're not looking to exalt
ourselves and thinking, well, I'm better than so-and-so, at
least. It doesn't matter whether you're better than so-and-so.
We're still a sinner, desperate for His grace and mercy. Or we're
not better religionists. We don't want to be better at
religion than others. Our hope is Christ, that He have
mercy on us, just as we are, because what can we do? We don't have what it takes to
make ourselves righteous. We don't have what it takes to
keep ourselves in the grace of God. So Paul says, thou standest
by faith, and that's a fruit of the Spirit, and that's born
in every child of God in the appointed time of God's grace
and love for them. Now Paul gives a warning in verse
21. Verse 21, for if God spared not the natural branches, take
heed lest he also spare not thee. So The intent here, Paul, is
that if anyone would have been spared, if God was going to spare
anyone for natural causes, it would have been the Jews, not
us Gentiles. If there's any hope in natural
stuff, it would have fallen to the Jews, and we would have been
excluded. So don't even think of it in
that way. If he didn't spare the natural
branches, what do you got to offer? Nothing. So don't hope
in that at all. All right? And so we're not going
to look at things that are fleshly and things like that to boast
in. Instead he says, verse 22 now, Behold therefore the goodness
and severity of God on them which fell severity. Or a harshness, a sternness from
God. God was stern with them and they
were They were cut off, they were removed from belief. But
toward Thee, goodness, if Thou continue in His goodness, otherwise
Thou also shalt be cut off. And so, he's saying, we that
believe Christ, we're to be thankful to God for Christ, and not looking
at what we've done to make ourselves savable, by God or to make Him,
provoke Him to be good to us and kind to us. It's the goodness
of God toward us. It's the goodness of God toward
you, brethren, that you believe. He said in Titus 3, 4 through
6, he said, but after that the kindness and love of God our
Savior toward man appeared. not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. He's speaking
of that spiritual birth. We in religion, man in religion,
tends to forget that it's a spiritual birth whereby we stand and have
our being in Christ, not by something we've done, it's not a physical
thing that we do, it's what the Spirit of God has done for us
in giving us life by the seed, the incorruptible seed of Jesus
Christ. It's a new birth, brethren. It's
a revelation of God which is spiritual and not something that
we can put our hands on or affect one way or the other. It's all
of grace of Him. And that He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Alright, so He's saying continue
in that faith which has been revealed to you and has been
revealed in you if you are indeed born of the Spirit of God Right
now, thinking of that continuing, remember Paul and Barnabas in
Acts 13, and they're talking, I think it was in Antioch in
Pisidia. It says that when they were speaking
to the Jews first and the proselytes, they persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. They said, don't depart from
this grace of God. Don't depart from that which
you're hearing. And what he means by that is continue in the community
of this fellowship and the truth that you've now heard. Continue
in this revelation that God has given to you in the preaching
of the gospel. It's more of an outward thing
that we don't want to miss this. We don't want to be left in darkness. We don't want to perish in our
sins. And that want or that desire
is born in us by the Spirit. Many people go into religion
and sit in various churches for many different carnal reasons. And what Paul's saying is, if
you've come into hearing the gospel, if he's brought you into
that fellowship with the church, where you're sitting and hearing
the gospel and hearing what's being preached, you want to continue
in that, asking the Lord to have mercy on you, not to be indifferent
or careless with it and say, you know, oh well, it'll be what
it'll be. if it be, you know, but no, like, we should seek
the Lord and ask Him, have mercy on me, Lord, lest I perish like
so many others and be broken off, if you will. Not that a
true child of God can ever be broken off from the grace of
God. It's not possible. All he's saying
is, if you hear it, and you hear what he's saying, Don't be foolish. Don't be careless with that label. Stay in that grace of God. Like it says, they persuaded
them to continue in the grace of God. And then the next week
came, and they see all these Gentiles come in. And many of
those Jews that heard what Paul and Barnabas said became envious. And they left. They rejected
Christ, and they forbid them from preaching to Gentiles. And
so the Lord stirred the heart of Paul and Barnabas to see what
was going on. And they said, well, now you've
judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life. We're going to
the Gentiles with this word, as the Lord has showed us in
his word. And so they went and preached to the Gentiles as a
result. Same thing can happen to us,
right? It looks like it has. When you look at the Gentile
church at large, it looks like they have just fallen dead in
dead letter religion, and hoping in themselves and their own works,
and they've forgotten Christ. They have no part with Him. They
never had a part, but they certainly aren't doing anything to try
and have one. They're just laboring in religion
to try and move God towards them. All right, so Paul says in verse
23, And they also, if they abide
not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able
to graft them in again. So we see, again, it's the elect,
which he'll save in the appointed time, because they won't continue
in unbelief, but there will be faith revealed in them. And then
he points this proof here in verse 24. For if thou wert cut
out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted
contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall
these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive
tree." In other words, there's nothing prohibiting God from
saving any of us. He's able to save any of His
people at the appointed time of grace, and that He'll do.
we can trust and believe that he's going to save his people,
but not have any boasting of ourselves, knowing it's of his
grace and mercy toward us. So we don't exalt ourselves,
we rejoice in our God. So I pray the Lord bless that
word and encourage you all in the faith of Jesus Christ. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy and your grace to
us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you because we
know that it's by your grace in Christ that we stand. And
Lord, we see your display of grace and power to us being revealed
each week that you gather us together in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we're our eyes see, Lord,
a public meeting place where we could potentially go. And,
Lord, we stand in awe of just how possible all things are for
you. And so, Lord, we ask that if
it be your will, you would indeed help us to obtain this property
and to be able to meet there and that you, Lord, would bless
the relationship with the owner, and that it would grow, and the
work would be blessed, and that it would grow, and draw in Your
people from the surrounding area, Lord. Lord, we're humbled even
at the thought of it, that You should use a small group of people
such as us, sinners like us, Lord, that You should use us,
and minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to your people who were
kept shut up in darkness and blinded from the truth. But Lord,
we pray that the day of salvation is upon us here and that you
mean to bless the people of the Ozarks of Missouri. Lord, that
your gospel would be heard and believed upon by men and that
you would establish your church here in this dark part of the
world. that the Lord Jesus Christ would be exalted. And Lord, we
trust you to keep us humble and faithful and ever looking to
you. It's in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
that we pray this, amen. Okay, brethren, so about 15 minutes,
we'll come back.